Despite its clear value-for-money positioning and Volkswagen-engineered line-up, the Skoda brand continues to languish at the bottom end of the Australian new car market. In November alone, Skoda sold just 141 vehicles, lagging behind Citroen's 150 sales and leading the one-car Fiat on 112.

Buyers may be hard-pressed to drive past Skoda in the coming weeks however, with the Czech brand offering one year's free insurance on every new vehicle sold between now and February 28, 2011.

“We knew that rising insurance costs were becoming an issue for car buyers across the board, so we simply removed the problem,” Matthew Wiesner, Head of Škoda Australia said today.